How did the Houthis become so powerful?

0:00Hey everyone, it's Chris Kalebo here host of the Side Hustle School Podcast. This episode is powered by AT&T Business. In my early days, I did some of my best work in parked cars or coffee shops. When I landed my first big contract, I realized I couldn't bet my future on a public connection that cuts out if someone turns on a blender. As a small business owner, you're already wearing at least 10 hats. You shouldn't have to be your own IT department as well. That's why I rely on AT&T Business. They keep your connectivity reliable so you have one less thing to worry about. Powered by AT&T Business, built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.att.com. This is a CBC Podcast. Hey everyone, I'm Jimmy Poisson. On Sunday, it looked like the United States was about to wave back into its fight with

1:00Ansar al-Ala or the Houthis. That's the Iran-backed group in Yemen that has grown into a surprisingly powerful military presence in the region. Saudi Arabia had been asking for support after a series of Houthi attacks and advancements, which brought a major global shipping and oil choke point, the Bob El Mandeb straight, under Houthi control. After rushing from Camp David to Washington and reviewing the situation, Trump decided not to carry out the strike on the Houthis. That remains the case as of Monday evening. The stakes are really high here for all the players. Iona Craig has been reporting on Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula for over a decade and she joins us to track the Houthis rise from a small group of rebels from the mountains of northwestern Yemen to a geopolitical force and what their recent advancements mean for the Iran War and the world. Iona, thank you so much for coming onto the show.

2:01It's really a pleasure to have you. Mark Lashya, thanks for having me. So the Houthis have been fighting the Saudis for really over a decade now after a Saudi-led coalition entered the Yemeni civil war in March 2015. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched military operations in Yemen. The objective is to defend the legitimate government of President Hadi from the takeover attempts by the Houthi militias in Yemen. The broad expectation then was that it wouldn't last nearly this long, right? So I want to understand how we got here. Firstly, can you briefly give us an overview of who the Houthis are and how they rose to power as one of the main factions in the Yemeni civil war? Right. So going back a bit now, the Houthis hail from Yemen's most gnawls and government insiders up on the Saudi border. And they were formed in the late 1990s, firstly as a kind of youth movement, but then in the

3:03early 2000s, they fought their first war against the Yemeni government. And that became the first of what was six wars then against the government of the former president of Yemen, Aliad Dallasale, who was in power for 33 years. And then during my time in Yemen, when I was living there back in 2010 was kind of the wrapping up at the last of those six wars. But then of course the Arab Spring happened a clear call for their country's leader to step down. Ten to thousands of people descending on the streets of the capital, the crowd made up of opposition members and youth activists. Aliad Dallasale was forced out of power, but then in 2014, the Houthis started pushing south and heading through a lot of the tribal areas in the Highlands until they seized the capital Sunnah when I was living there in 2014. But with relatively little fighting.

4:04The president's residence came under attack, followed by the nearby presidential palace, which was apparently looted by Houthi rebels. And this is described the security forces as apparently giving up. And that transpired really because they aligned with Yemen's former president who they'd fought those six wars against. And his loyalists who remained in the army that they were able to take the capital. But then they didn't stop and they kept pushing on down through the country. And then by early 2015, they put the new president, President Hadid, under house arrest, who then managed to escape and fled to Saudi Arabia. And that's when Saudi Arabia launched its bombing campaign against the Houthis in the spring of 2015. But like many countries get involved in air wars that sounds quite familiar now. Saudi Arabia believed that they would bomb the Houthis back to Sada within a matter of weeks that didn't happen. And the air war continued with support from other regional neighbours, most crucially,

5:08UAE, until a ceasefire was really agreed between the Saudis and the Houthis in 2022. And so the conflict had really been fairly dormant between 2022 and until the last few weeks really or crucially until July. But the Houthis have got to where they are today, not just because of the help of Ali Abdelassaleh, who they then turned on and killed in 2017. Tell us which sides in Yemen's civil war over the weekend, turning on his Iranian back to Houthi allies who reportedly attacked his house in Sanaa, pursuing him as he fled. But because of this ongoing support from Iran that started really as political support and sort of summer camps and support from their other allies in Lebanon, Hezbollah. But it has kind of strengthened over the years and certainly during the course of the conflict with weapons training, particularly from military advisers on how to use much more advanced

6:14weapon systems. And to the point where the Houthis have now become able to manufacture their own weapons domestically at home as well with components that are being smuggled in from China or as well as Iran. So they've gone from this kind of stereotypical rag tag militia that people like to portray them as to this very sophisticated now organization that has taken over the institutions and the infrastructure of the government that existed before and have been in control of that now for more than a decade with extensive military capabilities that we have seen very well exercised in the last few days. For the first time Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have struck Saudi Arabia's capital, massive plumes of black smoke were seen rising from fuel tanks near the city's airport. The rebels also had energy sites with drones and ballistic missiles. The assault comes as Americans are moving.

7:20They're slogan that the Sarkha appears on banners written out in green and red letters against a white background and translated it says, God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, curse be upon the Jews, victory to Islam. And what more can you tell me about their ideological world view and how it's attracted followers and allies in Yemen and across the region? Well, the Houthis rose really for several reasons but also linked to America's invasion of Iraq and in a response to that. That particular slogan, the story goes that that came from the first leader of the Houthis when he saw a video from the Interfada in Palestine and his reaction to a man who was cradling that became a very famous video, a man cradling his son in his arms that was shot dead.

8:21And so this visceral anti-Israel and in that slogan obviously as well, anti-Semitic slogan came from that ideological sense that really as well of course then aligned them with Iran's world perspective and really drew them therefore as a kind of natural ally into the axis of resistance. Yes, it was from events around the region that really influenced that slogan big adopted. But I mean, ideologically the Houthis, they really see themselves as having a divine right to rule. They believe very much in the importance of being able to trace your lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad and those families that can within Yemen are favored in the Houthi networks. They are given positions of privilege and power. There's a religious aspect as well as a political one that feeds into that ideology of the Houthis. How does this help us understand

9:24their opposition to the Saudis? Sort of back in that back at the beginning of their history, their first sort of fighting centered around actually a religious school that was up in Sada in their homeland that was funded by Saudi Arabia. So you could take some of this back to almost a blowback from the funding of religious schools that spreads the Salafi Islam from Saudi Arabia into northern Yemen that didn't previously exist until the kind of 1980s. So on an ideological and religious front that is relevant because a lot of the fighters on the anti-Houthis side have come out of not just that school but other schools that were connected to it that were funded across Yemen as well and they're fighting very much for religious reasons. But more recently the kind of the response to Saudi Arabia has always sort of been as the Houthis have put them up as the external

10:24enemy now, alongside Israel, but has been down to Saudis and launching of this bombing campaign in 2015 and there was a peace deal that all the political deal that was on the table between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis between 2022 and until this kind of summer. The Houthis were hoping or expecting to get a significant financial gain out of that deal that ran into the billions of dollars in the form of getting government salaries and civil servant salaries paid in their territory. And that looked like, well that was certainly looking like a possibility sort of nine months ago or a bit longer. But now there's no question about happening in the near future I think but that was what the Houthis were really wanting to get out of Saudi Arabia was a kind of financial payout in order to keep them economically sufficient really in their territory.

11:30According to the UN, around half of the population in government controlled areas are living with acute food insecurity and just West State is the general population of Yemen after all these years of war. It was always in a fragile state it was the poorest country in the Middle East but also crucially Yemen imports between 1890 percent of its basic foods and so there is very little capacity when those supply lines are restricted for people to be able to cope and certainly in the humanitarian crisis that we saw in the first round of this war in 2016, 2017 and 2018. 17 million Yemenis do not know if or where they will get their next meal. Nearly seven million are facing the threat of famine and nearly 16 million lack access to water or sanitation. I was reporting from the ground then and and it wasn't or it wasn't necessarily about a lack of food in the market it was about the price of those goods because of the block owed being

12:34imposed by Saudi Arabia because of the hoodies using siege tactics around villages, towns and cities. There any food that was available was incredibly expensive and now what we're seeing now is unfortunately a kind of flashback to that time because the current fighting has sort of led to a surge of displacement, you know sort of a hundred thousand people being displaced in in around two weeks which is just an extraordinary number and that's that won't be people that are being displaced for the first time the second time or even the third time. People have been displaced multiple times now during this conflict because it's gone on for so long. Many have turned up over the Red Sea in Djibouti but many of them are being displaced internally and ending up in other cities and towns.

13:38Hey everyone it's Chris Kalebo here host of the Side Hustle School podcast. This episode is powered by AT&T Business. In my early days I did some of my best work in parked cars or coffee shops but when I landed my first big contract I realized I couldn't bet my future on a public connection that cuts out if someone turns on a blender. As a small business owner you're already wearing at least 10 hats. You shouldn't have to be your own IT department as well. That's why I rely on AT&T Business. They keep your connectivity reliable so you have one less thing to worry about. Powered by AT&T Business built to work. Get AT&T Business at business.att.com. Every week I quiz my favorite comedian friends on the hottest headlines hanging out with us this week our Tom Hurn, Martha Chavez and co-host of the Evil Men podcast Michael Bellazzo. We'll be talking about Carney's sales pitched billionaires and my new unlocked nightmare for Manitoba. Mandatory gym.

14:41Relive your existential anxiety. I think that's supposed to say relieve your existential anxiety. Either way subscribe to the Becouse News podcast anywhere you download podcasts for free. The surge in this conflict that we've seen some of the most intense fighting in years as we've been talking about significant territorial gains over the last couple of weeks, most crucially control of the Bobo Mandub straight. Could you just tell me more about what led to this recent escalation in fighting? How did we get here? It was really triggered by an event in the middle of July. A Iranian passenger jet attempted to fly into Sunnah. It was returning from Tehran having taken a houthi delegation to the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Hamane. And when it was attempting to return the Saudi then came in and bombed Saar Airport and bombed the runway. Those were the first air strikes the Saudi to carry out against the Houthi since 2022. The Saudi enemy through its reckless decision to launch what was an unjust attack on Sana

15:46International Airport bears full responsibility for this aggression which serves the interests of the US Israeli enemy and its grave consequences. The duties then responded to that, describing what the Saudis were imposing as a blockade on them because there have been no commercial flight passenger flights in or out of Sunnah since Israel destroyed passenger jets on the runway at Sana'i Airport back in the spring of 2025. And so the Houthis responded then by targeting Saudi Arabia and said that they would impose a blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. And then quite quickly we saw that being reflected on the ground in Yemen with fighting, escalating between the Houthis and the very much Saudi-backed international recognized government forces on the ground. Then we saw South-Eutankers being attacked in the Red Sea and this has been continuous tit for attack escalation that culminated in the last few days

16:51with drone strikes on on re-air by the Houthis and an attack on their Western terminal oil terminal at Yambu. We've seen attacks on the Saudi oil pipeline but also this kind of lightning takeover by the Houthis of the Red Sea coast, the Western Red Sea coast and taking the islands that are are in the middle of the Babel Menda which is this very strategically important straight on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula which of course then means you've got Iran in control of the straight-of-all mues and they're one of their strongest allies in control now of the Babel Menda and that is both sides of the Arabian Peninsula effectively in this kind of kinsa, a kind of control by Iran and its allies which has this knock-on effect to the oil market and to the international economy. This jubilant Houthi militiamen said the rebels don't need missiles

17:55anymore they just need to position themselves in the right places around the waterway. This afternoon the Houthis said that shipping through the waterway would be safe for everyone apart from the Saudis. What do you think the Houthis ultimate goal is here? It's partly to get that money out of Saudi Arabia of course and to give themselves a significant leverage in any upcoming deal or negotiations with them but it's also to give themselves a kind of global strategic role which they've done very successfully now and also I think they would very much like to do what the Iranians have been talking about which is monetizing the Babel Menda. Iran has talked about monetizing the straight-of-all mues and there's been a lot of talk about the potential of a toll being put on the straight-of-all mues to start charging vessels going out of the straight-of-all mues much like vessels have to pay a tax to Egypt to go through the Suez Canal

18:57but that the Houthis would like to do that through the Babel Menda to equally earn an income out of the cargo shipping as well as oil tankers that have to go through the Babel Menda to reach Europe and I'm sorry Arabia have to go south to reach the Asia market so yeah there are a lot of things in there that the Houthis would like to gain out of this but they certainly gained the global strategic role and position that they've always wanted to in in the last few weeks and what about the Sides like why did the Sides choose to escalate things recently what are the Sides trying to do here? I think there's been a lot of miscalculation as ever really of the Houthis about their capabilities and their abilities to see so much territory so quickly I think it was a miscalculation by the Saudis to have carried out those strikes on Sunni airports back in July I think if they realized that this was going to be the consequences of it that they perhaps

20:03would have thought again about doing that but now the Saudis have been backed into a corner really and given the attacks on Saudi Arabia directly the casualties even that it's caused in Saudi Arabia the damage to its infrastructure. Ballistic missiles and drones launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels striking Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh. Dick Smokes scene rising near the airport the Houthis targeting oil facilities in a key port along the coast further disrupting Saudi oil production. It is in a position now where it has to escalate it has to fight back it cannot be seen be backing down in the fate of the Houthis particularly now where we see some of these strikes on the oil pipeline Saudi Arabia's oil pipeline coming from militias in Iraq which the Houthis are also aligned to and the Houthis even and we know have a presence there as well but now they've got the potential of strikes coming from the north the south and if things escalate over the straight of Hormuz potentially again from Iran as they did do earlier along

21:05in that conflict so the risks are very high right now for Saudi Arabia and it doesn't have the same coalition that it had back in 2015 during the first round of fighting with the Houthis but crucially in the form of the UAE who was very vital into providing support on the ground when Saudi Arabia was leading the air war the UAE were really the most important element of the ground war down the south so the Saudis are now left with the anti-Houthis forces which are deeply divided which they've only had sort of command and control over since January really the way that Houthis swept into the Red Sea western coast in Yemen was quite clearly a kind of as much about the failure of those anti-Houthi fighting forces under the international recognized government that are backed by Saudi Arabia their lack of communication their divisions and that have been long-standing as it was about the Houthis capabilities and their ability to be

22:06able to fight in Yemen's mountains which they've had nearly 30 decades of experience doing what about the United States here Mohammed Bill Salman the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia reportedly according to the New York Times has asked Trump to intervene here on behalf of Saudi Arabia and Trump apparently was considering that over the last couple of days I'm preparing for some kind of air strikes but demure and has not struck as of Monday afternoon eastern time when you and I are talking according to the Times most of Trump's closest advisors were skeptical about potential strikes given the strains facing the US military in the war in Iran I just wonder what you think going on there well there's a lot in the balance really both for Saudi Arabia and the US I mean

23:07there is a deal between the US and the Houthis that has been standing since the Trump administration launched its air campaign against the Houthis in the spring of 2025 and after two months of bombing the President Trump announced this deal with the Houthis where whereby the US would not strike them anymore if the Houthis didn't target any of their vessels in the Red Sea and the Houthis have been very quick since this escalation started to say that the Saudi vessels are the only ones that will be targeted in the Red Sea and the Babylonian tab US vessels won't and neither will others because the Houthis have received the wrath of President Trump before and do not want to repeat that now when they're already in a battle with Saudi Arabia and meanwhile the Trump administration is still trying to deal with the situation of the state of Holmuz the potential of that escalating and there's you know an issue of potential

24:14overstretch what as well it might do economically if the US does start bombing the Houthis again and they in response then start targeting US link vessels in the Babylonian tab and the Red Sea as well as Saudi vessels there are economic repercussions for that just as you're going into elections in in the US so yes the the US support that Saudi Arabia was obviously hoping for in the form of their strikes could have repercussions for the US economy itself if they did decide to support Saudi Arabia in this way so it's a different scenario to 2015 now that the Babylonian tab is in play and the Red Sea and because of what's happening in the state of Holmuz because that gives the Houthis so much more leverage now than it ever would have done if they'd done this 10 years ago because of the war that's going on between the US with Israel and on Iran so there's a there's a lot

25:16in the balance to consider if you whether you are President Trump or whether you are Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia I think a lot will depend on the US's calculation over the straight of Holmuz and what their plan is certainly if there is any plan for escalation with Iran and same more about that for me how you think the Houthis recent gains fit into the calculus of the conflict in the greater region namely for Iran in their fight against the US and Israel Iran and the Houthis are of course very strong allies the Houthis are not however approximate of Iran I think if Iran had its way it would have wanted the Houthis to do this back at the beginning of the war in sort of March but actually timing wise it's probably worked out pretty well for Iran now because just as the global economy is starting to feel the pinch and will even more so now the northern hemisphere is heading into winter and the demand for fuel will be

26:21even greater for heating the Houthis have now got involved at a kind of crucial pinch point when I think Iran believes that it can sit out this war economically better than western countries can and western governments can and the Houthis are just adding to that pressure having effectively out of action the Yambu port which was exporting up to four million barrels of oil per day for Saudi Arabia which is around four percent of the world's supply for oil this can effectively turn the screws on the global economy which will have a significant impact on you know politicians and and government leaders across Europe and you know and and the US as everybody is feeling the picture that at the petrol pump in the form of diesel gas whatever and I think the uncertainty in all of this calculation is for the US if they're going to get involved against the Houthis if they

27:23did decide to carry out airstrikes is what would the response be from Iran in the sense of if Iran then starts to escalate over the straight of all moves and the US is kind of distracted by bombing the Houthis that it spreads them thinner across the region you've now effectively got a new front in this war if the US starts targeting the Houthis in Yemen was also trying to see off Iran over the straight of all moves so that's the balance at the moment I think for the US perhaps its vessel still being able to travel safely through the Red Sea is perhaps a greater priority than it is looking off to Saudi interests. Iona this was such a helpful explanation of what's been going on I feel like I've left with so much more clarity than when we began this conversation it is incredible to think about this relatively small force and the amount of outsides geopolitical influence that they have hey yeah I think what's really been really interesting I think just watching with you know

28:27we're seeing so much more than we were 10 years ago in this conflict you know now everybody's sort of videoing everything in the way that wasn't happening certainly in Yemen anyway 10 years ago and everybody's trying to sort of grandstand with their drones they're operating now again there's more drones than everywhere before but obviously the stockpiles the Houthis have built up I mean the the the mortars that are being fired in the last sort of 24 hours or 36 hours in Yemen the number is just extraordinary and they're dropping them from drones and you know I suppose we maybe got used to seeing the kind of level of of ammunition or weapons in the former drones being used in light Ukraine in the Ukraine and Russia war but yeah it's really extraordinary to see the stockpiles of the Houthis must have built up over the last few years and certainly obviously since 2022 when the ceasefire happened in a preparation for an escalation in this conflict and they're now

29:28deploying them so it's kind of extraordinary to see where the Houthis have come from in that terms of kind of their military industrial capabilities and where they started from back in the early 2000s it's kind of extraordinary. All right that is all for today I'm Jamie Pusson thanks so much for listening talk to you tomorrow. for more CBC podcasts go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.